Method of servicing data access requests from users

ABSTRACT

A method of servicing data access requests from users connected to a distributed service network comprises determining the user, the communications client used to connect to the network and the data stream conversions required for the user to communicate between the communications client and one or more accessed services. The method provides that the data access is provided independent of the connection point and the data communications client.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of servicing data accessrequests from users connected to a distributed service network. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a method of servicingdata access requests wherein the data access requests are servicedindependent of the actual connection point and communications clientemployed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Recent developments in telecommunications have resulted in networks fora wide variety of services. From conventional voice or data networks towireless packet and enhanced paging networks, the variety oftelecommunications options available to individuals and business isstaggering. This variety of options has lead to a revolution in howpeople live and work and mobile and/or nomadic workers are becomingincreasingly common.

While the available telecommunications services have been adopted tovarious degrees, to a large extent these services, and the networks thatsupport them, remain separate from each other reducing the overallpotential of these services. For example, it may not be possible to sendemail from a personal computer client in an office to a pager clientused by a salesman, even though both are connected to respectivetelecommunications networks.

This lack of integration and/or communication between networks andclients is a recognized problem and a variety of “middleware” productshave been proposed and/or produced to transfer data between onenetwork/system and another network/system. For example, Chapter 5 of thepublication, “Understanding the Next Phase of Mobile Commuting”, 1997,by the Yankee Group is entitled, “Evolving Middleware Solutions forWireless Remote Access” and discusses middleware solutions forcommunications with mobile users via wireless communications.

While middleware can be configured to provide the desiredinterconnectivity for many specific situations, to date no generalsolution exists to interconnect various telecommunications networks.Further, no solution exists to provide a distributed network to supply avariety of desired services at multiple sites in an essentiallytransparent and convenient. manner for users and service providers.Thus, the long sought goal of communication from any client or serviceto any other client between any two locations is still largely anunachieved goal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method ofservicing data access requests from users connecting to a network withmultiple access points which obviates or mitigates at least onedisadvantage of the prior art.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method servicing data access requests for a user accessing a networkvia a communications client connected to any one of two or more networkregions, comprising the steps of.

(i) determining at said network region the type of communications clientand transferring said connection to a bridge at said network regionwhich is appropriate for said determined type of client;

(ii) verifying the identity of said user;

(iii) determining any predefined preferences of said identified user andthe services which said identified user is able to access by accessing auser profile stored for said user by said network; and

(iv) allowing said user to access any of said determined services, saidnetwork region converting data streams to and from said client between aformat appropriate to said determined type of client and a formatemployed by said accessed service.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method of processing data access requests of users intermittentlyconnected to a distributed service network, said users employing atleast one of a plurality of types of communications clients and saidnetwork connected to a plurality of services, comprising the steps of:

(i) determining the type of communications client employed by the userand retrieving parameters defining required characteristics of saidcommunications client from a storage location in said network;

(ii) receiving a data access request from said user for a serviceselected by said user from said plurality of services;

(iii) determining the required characteristics of data to and from saidselected service; and

(iv) automatically converting data transferred between said service andsaid communications client in accordance with said requiredcharacteristics of said communications client and said determinedcharacteristics of said user-selected service.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of processing data access requests from usersconnected to a distributed service network including multipleconnections points, comprising the steps of:

(i) establishing a connection to a user at a connection point to saidnetwork;

(ii) locating information defined for said user and stored at a definedlocation within said network;

(iii) transferring a copy of at least a portion of said information fromsaid defined location to said connection point through said network;

(iv) processing data access requests from said user in accordance withsaid copied information and transferring a copy of additionalinformation required to fulfill said requests from said defined locationto said connection point;

(v) transmitting, over said network between said defined location andsaid connection point, updates representing changes effected at each ofsaid stored information defined for said user and said copy of saidinformation to each of the other of said stored information defined forsaid user and said copy of said information to maintain correspondencetherebetween.

The present invention provides a novel method of servicing data accessrequests from users accessing a network with multiple connection points,the services being provided independent of the actual connection pointand/or the communication client employed by the user to connect to thenetwork. These method is transparent to the user and to the provider ofthe accessed service and can be customized for each type of client,using parameters known for that client, and can be customized for eachuser's preferences for each client. Information relating to the user iscopied to and maintained at the connection point to reduce latency andbandwidth requirements through the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, byway of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a distributed service networkin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a region in the distributedservice network of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of the replication of a personalagent from a home region in a distributed service network to apersistent cache in a remote region in that network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A distributed service network in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention is indicated generally at 14 in FIG. 1. The types ofdata carried by network 14 is not particularly limited and can includeanalog and/or digital voice, computer network communications, email,messages for paging systems, etc. and, as will be apparent from thediscussion below, network 14 can simultaneously carry multiple types ofdata, as desired.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, network 14 comprises one or more regions 18,each of which comprises a region manager 22 and one or more regionservers 24. Each region manager 22 is connected to each region server 24in its region 18 and each region server 24 is connected to other regionservers 24, both those in its region 18 and those in other regions 18,by, a communications backbone 28, which can be any suitablecommunications link, such as T3 lines, high bandwidth fiber optic links,satellite links, etc. or any combination of suitable links.

As shown in FIG. 2, each region server 24 includes a suitablecommunications host 32 for communications backbone 28 and a plurality ofbridges 36 to which clients 40 of network 14 can be connected bydedicated telecommunications lines, dial-up access, wireless services, apublic packet network such as the internet, or any other suitable means.For clarity, FIG. 1 shows three region servers 24 in each region 18, butit is contemplated that the number of region servers 24 will varyaccording to contemplated load for the region and/or the servicesprovided at the region. It is contemplated that at least one region 18will be created for each geographic area where it is desired to providea local “point of presence” where a client 40 can connect to network 14.However, network 14 is very flexible and it is also contemplated thattwo or more regions 18 can be located in a single geographic area with arelatively high number of clients 40, etc., if desired, and in such acircumstance, regions 18 and their respective region servers 24 can beinterconnected via backbone 28 or any other suitable means and regionmanagers 22 can perform load and/or service balancing between regions18.

As is also shown in FIG. 2, region servers 24 include a data streamconversion system comprising set 44 of transducers 46 and a transducermatrix switch 48 to convert data streams between various formats,protocols and standards as required. Region servers 24 also include aset 52 of adapters and service agents, which can communicate with otherexternal services and/or networks 56, such as the internet, tocommunicate with servers running POP3, SMTP, etc., to perform emailtasks, faxing, web browsing, etc. As used herein, the terms “format” or“data format” are intended to comprise any representation of data. Forexample, digitized speech can comprise one format of data, a color imagein a GIF file format another, a black and white image in a black & whiteGIF file format another, a Group IV facsimile transmission another, ahtml document another, etc. Further, as used herein the term “datastream” is intended to comprise any collection, logical arrangement orgrouping of data, including one or more data files, data packets,streams of data such as digital voice, multimedia, or interactiveprocesses, etc.

Each adapter in set 52 provides a layer of transparency between theprotocols and/or API's used by the external service or services to whichit connects. Specifically, the adapter operates to convert betweenservice specific protocols or APIs and a generic protocol understood bythe region server 24. For example, region server 24 communicates with anadapter 52 for email via a generic “get” and “store” protocol and thatadapter 52 can convert between this generic protocol and an IMAP4 emailprotocol. Thus, the region server 24 and services local to that regionserver need only employ the simple “get” and “store” protocol and notthe complexity of the IMAP4 protocol. This also allows new servicesand/or amended services to be added to region servers 24, as desired, bymerely adding additional protocol conversion adapters.

Clients 40 can comprise a wide variety of telecommunications and/orcomputing devices including, without limitation, personal computers,cellular or PCS handsets, pagers, wireless-capable personal digitalassistants (PDAs) and any other device or system which requires voice ordata telecommunications services.

Region manager 22 includes a database engine 38, which maintains avariety of information regarding the users of network 14 and whichmaintains a registry of information relating to clients 40 which canconnect to network 14. This client registry includes information on howto establish and maintain a connection to each client 40, as well as thecapabilities and limitations of each client 40. Region manager 22monitors each region server 24 to perform load balancing between regionservers 24, and to manage the establishment of connections, as describedbelow in more detail.

When a client 40 wishes to connect to network 14, either by a dial upline, wireless connection or other data link, a connection, referred toherein as a preliminary connection, is established between the clientand one of bridges 36. The region server 24 which is connected to thebridge 36 to which the preliminary connection has been made notifies theregion manager 22 which determines the type of client 40. In somecircumstances, such as wherein the preliminary connection is establishedwith a GSM cellular telephone employing the SMS protocol, the bridge 36with which the preliminary connection is established will implicitlyidentify to the region manager 22 the type of client 40. In other cases,such as the case of a dial up line, region manager 22 and the bridge 36with which the preliminary connection is established must determine thetype of client 40 employed with the connection, such as a digital voicetelephone, analog voice telephone, WEB browser, etc. This determinationcan be effected by analyzing initialization procedures, by querying theclient 40, or by any other suitable method as will occur to those ofskill in the art.

Once the type of client 40 is identified, region manager 22 checks theclient registry in database engine 38 for the characteristics of client40 and ensures that the preliminary connection is transferred to anappropriate bridge 36, either at the region server 24 to which thepreliminary connection was originally made, or to another region server24, as appropriate. The selection of which region server 24 is to handlethe connection can be based upon a number of criteria, including thepresent workload of each of the region servers 24, the type of client40, etc. For example, one or more region servers may be configured withspecific hardware or otherwise optimized to handle connections to httpbrowser clients 40 and another for voice mail.

If a user changes the type of client 40 being employed while connectedto a region server 24, for example changing from a POP3 email client toa web browser client, or if a region server 24 has an excessive load,region manager 22 can transfer control of the connection, ifappropriate, to a different region server 24 in region 18 transparentlyto the user.

Next the identity of the user of client 40 is verified. Thisverification can comprise: an explicit step, such as the user inputtinga user ID and password; or an implicit step, such as the connectionbeing to a known address, such as an IP address or DN (directorynumber); etc. and can be performed by the region manager 22, or one ormore region servers 24 within region 18 which have capacity allocatedfor this task. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the former alternative is illustratedand verification information is compared to information in databaseengine 38 to verify the identity of the user. Once the identity of theuser has been verified, the preliminary connection becomes a completeconnection and data access requests from the user are serviced.

In one embodiment of the present invention, once the identity of a useris verified and a complete connection is established, a personal agentfor the user is accessed from database engine 38, onto a server 24. Thepersonal agent maintains a record, referred to herein as a user profile,of the services to which the user subscribes, user preferences forvarious possible client devices employed by that user and any otherpreferences of the user as well as billing information for the user. Inaddition to the user profile and preferences, the personal agent alsoprovides access to all relevant services data for user data accessrequests, including Email services for the user, passwords and useridentifications for other services, etc.

While the use of a personal agent is presently preferred, network 14 isnot limited to the use of a personal agent, and user profiles andrelated information can be stored in network 14 in any suitable manneras will occur to those of skill in the art.

If the user has connected to a region 18 which is not the “home” region18 (i.e.—the region 18 at which the user's data normally resides) of theuser, the verification is performed by either: consulting a registry ofusers maintained in database engine 38 to identify the home region 18 ofthe user; by sending a query to a centralized user registry server (notshown) which is connected to network 14 via communications backbone 28,or by sending a query from the connected (local) region manager 22 tothe region managers 22 of neighboring regions 18 via backbone 28 tolocate the database engine 38 with required information to verify theuser. In this last case, if none of the neighboring regions 18 are thehome region 18 of the user and thus do not have the necessaryinformation for the user on their database engine 38, the query isrelayed to additional regions 18 until either the home region 18 isidentified. If at any point it is determined that the user is not anauthorized user for network 14, the preliminary connection betweenclient 40 and bridge 36 is terminated. There are a variety of suitabletechniques that will be apparent to those of skill in the art fordetermining when a user verification query has been successful, orunsuccessful, and this will not be fuirher discussed herein.

Once the home region 18 has been identified for the user and the user'sidentity has been confirmed and a complete connection established, thepersonal agent at the home region 18 can be accessed, via communicationbackbone 28, by the remote region 18 or the personal agent can bereplicated to the local region 18 from the home region 18, via back bone28. The determination of whether to access the personal agent viabackbone 18 or whether to replicate the personal agent at the remoteregion 18 is based upon a suitable preselected quality of service (QoS)metric and can include a consideration of: the communications latencybetween the remote region 18 and the home region 18 over communicationsbackbone 28; the length of the time the user is expected to requireaccess to the data at the local region 18; the amount of data the userrequires access to; and other relevant factors as will occur to those ofskill in the art.

If the personal agent for a user is replicated to remote region 18, theentire personal agent is not necessarily replicated and, preferably,only information which is immediately required, or which is likely to berequired imminently, is replicated to reduce the transfer and/or storageof unnecessary data. To further reduce the storage of unnecessary data,the replication of the personal agent in a local region 18 is stored ina persistent cache, as will be described in more detail below.

Once a full connection is established with a region server 24, the userhas complete access to all services through network 14 which the user isauthorized to access, as determined from the user's personal agent orother user profile information, essentially independent of the client 40he has employed to connect to the network and all authorized data accessrequests are served by network 14 to client 40. This client independenceis accomplished via the client registry and set 44 of transducers 46 andtransducer matrix switch 48.

Specifically, as mentioned above, region manager 22 and bridge 36determine what type of client 40 is communicating with bridge 36. Thisinformation is used to identify the entry for that client in the clientregistry and the characteristics of that client, including itsrequirements, capabilities and limitations are provided to transducermatrix switch 48, as are the characteristics of the type of servicebeing accessed which is determined from the adapter 52 making theconnection to the service. The user profile is also accessed todetermine any user specified preferences for that type of client

Transducer matrix switch 48 arranges, configures and/or connects one ormore transducers 46 in set 44, as necessary, to convert between the dataformats (types and/or protocols) employed by client 40 and the dataformats employed by the service being accessed. If no single transducer46 exists in set 44 which can effect the necessary conversion, thentransducer matrix switch 48 will chain two or more transducers 46together, with the output of one transducer being the input to the next,to accomplish the necessary conversion. In one embodiment, transducermatrix switch 48 receives an input from bridge 36 as to the formatemployed by client 40 and receives an input from set of adapters 52 asto the data format employed by the external service and these two inputsare used as indices to a look up table, or ordered set, in matrix switch48 of all possible conversions. The indicated entry in this tabledefines the required transducer 46, or combination of transducers 46, toeffect the desired conversion. As new transducers 46 are added to set44, the conversion look up table is updated accordingly.

Further, in some circumstances two or more transducers 46, or chains oftransducers 46, can be employed in parallel. For example, a Group IVfacsimile message can be received by one of set 52 of adapters foraccess by a PCS telephone client 40. In such a case, a first transducer46 can be employed to perform an optical character recognition (OCR)conversion from the facsimile format to ASCII text format and then apair of transducers 46 can simultaneously examine the resulting text,one to locate to locate the facsimile sender's name and/or telephonenumber, and the other to locate the subject matter of the facsimile froma “subject” line. The located “from” and “subject” information is thensent to the user's PCS telephone, in accordance with the client registryinformation for PCS clients and the users preferences for that client,from the user's profile.

As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, in order toefficiently utilize transducers 46, they can be implemented within amulti-threaded architecture. In this case, every transducer 46 is alwaysavailable as the architecture will essentially maintain a pool ofthreads for use.

As an example of the use of a data conversion system in accordance withthe present invention, if a user has connected to network 14 via ananalog voice telephone client 40 and wishes to access email services, atouch tone response transducer 46 and a text to speech transducer 46 areselected and configured by transducer matrix switch 48 and portions ofthe email messages will be read to the user. Depending upon thepreferences and/or set-up defined by the user for the client 40, asstored in the user's personal agent or other user profile, the user canbe provided with the email in a variety of manners. For example, theuser can be provided with a prompt, via the text to speech transducer46, informing the user of the number of new Email messages which havebeen received and/or the messages or their subject lines can be read tothe user via the text to speech transducer 46. A touch tone responsetransducer 46 can allow the user to select messages of interest to beread or messages to be deleted, etc. by pressing keys on a touch tonephone. A speech recognition transducer 46 can also be employed, eitherin instead of or in addition to, the touch tone response transducer 46.In such a case, the user can dictate responses to Email, etc.Alternatively, the user can have set their preferences in their personalagent or user profile such that they are only informed of the number ofnew email messages, and their time of receipt.

As will be apparent, the user's personal agent or user profile caninclude different preferences for each service when delivered on eachdifferent client 40. For example, when the user connects to network 14via a dial up line with a personal computer running an email program asclient 40, the user's email will be fully available to them from theemail program in a conventional manner, rather than being read to themvia text to speech transducer 46. If that personal computer hasconnected to network 14 via a cellular modem, with a limited and/orcostly bandwidth, the email can be presented as subject lines only,except for messages flagged as urgent. Many other possibleconfigurations and/or options will occur to those of skill in the art.

As mentioned above, transducers 46 can be chained, as necessary, bytransducer matrix switch 48 to provide required conversions. Forexample, if a user wishes to access a web page from an analog voicetelephone, transducer matrix switch 48 can employ an HTML to ASCIItransducer to receive the HTML definition of the web page and to convertit to ASCII text which would then be passed to a text to speechtransducer 46 to convert that ASCII text to speech that the user canreceive on their telephone. Similarly, speech recognition or touch toneresponse transducers can be employed to receive input from the user asto hot links to be followed or other inputs desired.

Set 44 of transducers 46 and transducer matrix switch 48 providetransparent conversion of services within network 14. It is contemplatedthat, at least to some extent, all services will be transparent oraccessible, in accordance with user defined preferences stored in theusers' personal agents and that such transparency will not require anysteps on the part of the service provider. For example, a user candefine that only a count of new Email messages received be sent to theirpager, or that a count of all new messages received, and the subjectlines of messages marked urgent be downloaded, etc. and yet the senderof the email message need not concern themselves with such details.

It is contemplated that, in some circumstances, different region servers24 in a region 18 can have different transducers 46 in their set 44. Forexample, a region server 24 can have one or more transducers 46 for textto speech conversions which require special purpose hardware in regionserver 24. In such a case, only one region server 24 in a region 18 maybe equipped with such special purpose hardware and a connection to aclient 40 which requires a text to speech transducer 46 can betransferred, as necessary, by matrix transducer switch 48 in the regionserver 24 handling the connection to a region server 24 in anotherregion 18 which has the necessary transducer 46. The determination ofwhich other region server 24 has the necessary transducer 46 can bedetermined, for example, by consulting a table of this information whichis maintained in each region manager 22 or by any other suitable means,as will be apparent to those of skill in the art

In addition to performing service to client conversions, network 14 canalso perform transport protocol conversions as well. An adapter in set52 can receive data in one transport protocol and can forward it toanother adapter in set 52 wherein it is re-transmitted vial anothertransport protocol. For example, data can be received via TCP/IP by afirst adapter in set 52 and transmitted from a second adapter in ATM orFrame Relay protocol. It is contemplated that set 52 can also includeencryption and/or decryption engines as well. It is also contemplatedthat, in some circumstances, transducers 46 can be employed to performprotocol conversions and/or encryption and decryption if desired. It isalso contemplated that set of adapters 52 and/or set 44 of transducerscan provide API's for legacy logging and billing subsystems tofacilitate record keeping for Internet service providers (ISP's),telephone companies, cellular telephone companies, etc.

As mentioned above, there is preferably a personal agent defined foreach user which accomplishes several tasks. For example, the personalagent provides access to the information necessary to identify the userto network 14, by a user ID and password, a known IP address, a pagernumber, a cellular EIN, etc. Additionally, the personal agent canprovide access to information such as account and/or passwordinformation for third party services to which the user subscribes. Forexample, for the user can subscribe to a stock quotation and informationservice which requires the user to identify themselves to the servicebefore being allowed to access the desired the information. While suchuses of the personal agent provide convenience to the user, in nothaving to remember account numbers, passwords, etc., the personal agentcan in fact do much more.

Specifically, the user can instruct their personal agent to perform avariety of tasks, ranging from the simple to the quite sophisticated.For example, the user can have defined that their personal agent contactthe above-mentioned stock quotation service once every hour to determinethe current price of one or more stocks and, if the prices reach acertain price, to contact the user in a defined manner, such as bysending them an email, or paging them, providing them with a synthesizedvoice message in a voice mailbox or by contacting them on their analogcellular telephone. As will be apparent, set 44 of transducers 46 andtransducer matrix switch 48 will be employed, as necessary, incontacting the user via an appropriate client 40, such as by employing atext to speech transducer 46 to provide them with a voice notificationon their cellular telephone. It will be apparent to those of skill inthe art that a personal agent is not service specific and a personalagent for a user is available for any service available to the user.Thus, it is contemplated that each user can have a single personal agentfor all tasks. It is also contemplated that a computer-based graphicaluser interface will be available to users to allow them to select anddefine tasks for their personal agents which tasks are then transferredto the personal agent via network 14. The construction and operation ofsuch a PC-based interface, or other suitable means for defining tasksand options for a personal agent, will be apparent to those of skill inthe art.

As also mentioned above, the present invention includes a persistentcaching system for personal agents. As shown in FIG. 3, the home region18 a for a user includes a master personal agent 80 stored in databaseengine 38 a. When a user connects to network 14 through a remote region18 b, and if a predefined QoS metric is not met by accessing the masterpersonal agent 80 via communications backbone 28, master personal agent80 is replicated, as replicated personal agent 80 r, via communicationsbackbone 28 to remote region 18 b where it is placed in the persistentcache of database engine 38 b. As mentioned above, in the initialreplication only a minimum portion of the personal agent is replicated.For example, only the information required to identify the user, theservices to which the user is subscribed and the user's billinginformation is transferred.

Once a complete connection is established, depending upon the user'sactivities, additional information can be transferred to replicatedpersonal agent 80 r and/or updates from replicated agent 80 r aretransmitted to master personal agent 80. For consistency, masterpersonal agent 80 is always updated by a replicated personal agent 80 rto reflect all changes and some changes which occur at master personalagent 80 are automatically updated to replicated personal agent 80 r.This minimal replication reduces bandwidth and messaging requirements bykeeping as much activity as possible within the local region 18 b,reducing communications through communications backbone 28.

For example, a user can connect to remote region 18 b and the regionmanager in region 18 b locates the master personal agent 80 for the userin region 18 a, the user's home region. A replicated personal agent 80 rfor the user is transferred to region 18 b from region 18 a and isemployed to verify the identity of the user. At this point, dependingupon the activities of the user, a variety of transfers can occurbetween the persistent cache in database engine 38 b of region 18 b andmaster personal agent 80. If the user merely places a voice mail messagein another user's voice mail box, a billing entry can be added toreplicated personal agent 80 r and an update transferred to masterpersonal agent 80 to reflect this billing entry.

In a more interesting example, the user can conduct an email session,reading, replying, deleting and creating various messages as desired. Insuch a case, the user's inbox and address list will be replicated atpersonal agent 80 r and appropriate updates transmitted to masterpersonal agent 80 to flag messages as having been read and/or to removemessages which have been deleted and to update the address list toreflect any changes made by the user. When the user creates new emailmessages, those messages are sent in a conventional manner and placed inthe user's outbox in the persistent cache and updates are sent to masterpersonal agent 80 to be placed in the users' outbox therein. Any emailmessages received at master personal agent 80 can be automaticallyreplicated to replicated personal agent 80 r, if desired. As will beapparent to those of skill in the art, this replication technique canalso be employed for GSM voice services to accommodate the Home LocationRegistry and the Visitor Location Registry employed therein.

Further, in some circumstances data will be transferred from a personalagent (either master personal agent 80 or replicated personal agent 80r) to a client 40 and subsequently changed in that client 40. When thatclient 40 next connects to network 14, master personal agent 80 can beupdated to reflect those changes, either directly or via an update fromreplicated personal agent 80 r. For example, a list of telephone numberscan be downloaded into a client 40 such as a personal digital assistant(PDA) or cellular telephone and the user can subsequently add, delete oramend entries in that list. When that client 40 is again connected tonetwork 14, the copy of that list in master personal agent 80 is updatedfrom client 40 to reflect the additions, deletion and amendments made bythe user.

As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, the operation of thepersistent cache is transparent to the user and is employed to enhanceperformance of network 14 by reducing latency time, and in conjunctionwith the replication strategies, to reduce bandwidth consumption too,where possible. The persistent cache can employ any suitable cachingstrategy, as will occur to those of skill in the art, but it iscontemplated that a FIFO (first in first. out) strategy will be employedwherein replicated personal agents 80 r in the persistent cache areranked according to their age in the cache and, when a portion of thecache must be flushed, the oldest entries are removed. This strategy canbe enhanced by also tracking for each entry in the persistent cachewhether its corresponding master personal agent 80 has been accessed atthe home region 18 a, or replicated to another remote region, after thelast access time of the replicated personal agent 80 r in the persistentcache. Replicated personal agents 80 r at a region 18 b whosecorresponding master personal agents 80 have been accessed or replicatedsince the last access to the replicated personal agent 80 r, are flushedfrom the cache in region 18 b.

As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, once a completeconnection is established between a client 40 and a region 18, securityis maintained by network 14. All connections through communicationsbackbone 28 are secure and/or encrypted to ensure that the identity ofthe user is authenticated and that the data communications withinnetwork 14 are private. Further, communications via set 52 of adaptersand service agents with other services can be encrypted and decrypted,as required.

Regions 18 have been constructed of components which are implemented insoftware, where appropriate, or which have software interfaces whichallow for easy upgrading, enhancement and to provide “hot-plugability”,i.e.—the ability to add or remove services and/or hardware while network14 is in operation. Specifically, bridges 36 comprise the necessaryhardware to establish connections to client 40 and comprise asoftware-implemented control which manages the communication with regionservers 24. Similarly, database engine 38 includes a suitable databaseengine and a software-implemented control which manages the persistentcache and other functions of the database engine 38. Set 44 oftransducers 46, and transducer matrix switch 48 also comprisesoftware-implemented components which either control hardware and/orfirmware to perform their necessary functions, or which perform thesefunctions themselves. Similarly, set 52 of adapters and service agentsinclude the necessary hardware to perform appropriate communicationstasks and a software-implemented control which manages and controlsthese tasks.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, thesesoftware-implemented controls are constructed as Java servlets, JavaBeans and Java Enterprise Beans, as documented in Sun's JavaSoft JavaServlet documentation and in the Java V1.1 documentation andinterservlet communications is accomplished by way of Java's RMIservices, also documented therein.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a wrapper has been added theconventional Java servlets to provide rapid synchronous and asynchronouscommunications. Specifically, the wrapper extends the functionality ofthe servlets from their conventional http-based “post” and “get” API toa fully functional asynchronous messaging API by which messages can besent to any servlet and received from any servlet via a sustainedconnection, or by a connection which is asynchronous. A servlet extendedwith this wrapper can communicate synchronously with any other servlet(extended or non-extended) and can also communicate asynchronously withany other extended servlet.

Essentially the wrapper comprises methods which the servlet mustimplement. The first method is “perform()” which is the synchronousevent handler. It is called with an event, returns a value when completeand is blocked while an event is being processed. The second method is“performAsynch()” which is the asynchronous event handler. This methodreturns a “FutureReply” placeholder object as soon as possible. Whenevent processing is complete, the method then sends an asynchronousreply event to the caller servlet. The FutureReply placeholder includesa unique identifier which allows the receiving servlet to match asubsequently received reply event to the original event. With thismethod, the caller servlet is free to perform other processing while theevent is being processed.

To accommodate these two types of event handling, two different types ofevents are defined. Specifically, “ServletEvent” and“ServletAsynchEvent” are employed, the former being used for synchronousevents and the latter for asynchronous events. In this system, eventscomprise an identifier of type String, an argument, which can be anyObject, and a Session. Because more than one servlet can send an eventto an extended servlet, a Session, which is an object that includes aunique identification, is provided to assist the extended servlet inprocessing synchronous events by allowing the servlet to identify theordering of events.

While Java servlets, Java Beans, Java Enterprise Beans and the Java RMIinterface is presently preferred for implementing the softwarecomponents of network 14, it will be apparent to those of skill in theart that the present invention is not limited to such an implementationand CORBA (Common Object Request Broker) or other suitableimplementations can be employed, in part or in whole, if desired.

As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, several advantages arerealized with the use of software-implemented controls. Specifically,regions 18 can have components added or removed while the network is inoperation, without requiring network 14 to be shut down with the resultthat network 14 is scalable and network 14, regions 18 and regionservers 24 remain operational while such component changes are beingeffected. Thus, for example, additional bridges 36 or differenttransducers 46 can be added to or removed from a region 18 as desired.Further, new services and/or capabilities can also be added to regions18 and merely requires that appropriate servlets be registered in theregions 18. This also allows for physical components to be servicedwithout affecting network 14 or regions 18.

Services and capabilities can also be loaded over network 18. Forexample, when a region 18 is started up, the services, adapters,gateways and transducers can be loaded onto region 18 over the networkfrom other regions 18 or from a data base maintained for that purpose onnetwork 18. The components and services can also be loaded on demandfrom a specific region 18 or region server 24 within a region 18 whenrequired. These services, etc. can be executed remotely for a region 18or actually loaded into the region 18 and executed locally, as discussedbelow.

To implement this “hot-plugability”, a layer of indirection is employedbetween components of region 18 and requests for services of thesecomponents. In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, regionmanager 22 maintains a record, or availability list, indicating theavailable components within a region 18 and each request for services ofa component is made by accessing this list to determine the availablecomponents. To add new components and/or services to a region 18, anappropriate addition is made to this availability list when thecomponent/service is available. To remove a component for preventativemaintenance, etc., the component is removed from the availability listand the component can be removed or taken off line when it has completedits present task. As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, theavailability list described above is only one possible manner in which adetermination of the components available within a region 18 and/orother regions 18 can be accomplished and the present invention is notlimited to the use of such a list.

This also allows for hardware and/or license balancing to be performed.For example, a region 18 may include one or more text to speechtransducers 46 which rely upon special purpose hardware or softwarewhich is capable of performing (or which is only licensed to perform) afixed number of simultaneous transformations. In such a case, theservice list can identify services/components which are to be employedbefore others and can also refer to components/service in other regionswhich can be accessed via communications backbone 28.

In the text to speech example, once the fixed number of simultaneoustext to speech transformations is being performed, additional requestsfor text to speech transformations can be referred, via references inthe service list, to another region 18 which has similar special purposehardware, or which has additional licenses. In such a case, the servicelist can instead indicate an alternative transducer 46 which is lessefficient than the licensed system, and which can be employed only onceall of the special purpose hardware transducers 46 are occupied. In thismanner, requests for text to speech are met and the license, if any, isnot exceeded and/or utilization of hardware is improved. As will beapparent, if a transducer 46 is not fully occupied, region manager 22can permit other regions 18 to employ the surplus capacity, by reportingavailable capacity to these other regions 18 via backbone 28, thuspermitting efficient use of the hardware and/or licensed capacity ofnetwork 14.

In a similar fashion, the level of utilization of each region server 24can be monitored by the region manager 22 and the service list can beappropriately updated by the region manager 22 to indicate thatcomponents at under utilized region servers 24 be employed beforesimilar components at regions servers 24 with higher utilization levels.

Thus, efficient use can be made of existing network resources andresources can be added or removed, as desired. While it is presentlypreferred that region manager 22 maintain the service list for allcomponents available in a region 18, it is also contemplated that insome circumstances service lists may be maintained at each region server24 for some or all services provided therein. For example, it iscontemplated that one or more region servers 24 maintain a list oftransducers 46 available at the region server 24. It is alsocontemplated that, if a region server 24 does not find a requiredcomponent available in its list, a request can be sent to other regionservers 24, either directly or via region manager 22, via communicationsbackbone 28 for access to the required component or a service listindicating services available at other regions 18 can be maintained ineach region manager 22 and consulted, as needed, to determine where aservice is available. Region manager 22 can then either have the serviceremotely executed by another region 18 or can download the service, vianetwork 14, onto a region server 24 in region 18 for execution thereon.

Another advantage of network 14 is its ability to provide tunneling forIP addresses (or similar addressing schemes). Specifically, many networksecurity models include the recognition of a user's IP address, ascontained in the IP header on each IP packet, as part of the securitymodel. A message received from an unrecognized IP address is generallyrefused by the network. While this model can provide reasonable resultsin many cases, it fails with mobile or nomadic users. For example, theIP packets sent by a salesman trying to access his employers' networkfrom a remote location will have a different IP address, once the packetis routed, than they would when sent from the salesman's home location,and the messages will thus be refused by the employers' network. With anetwork in accordance with the present invention, such as network 14, IPpackets are “tunneled” between the home region and the remote region. Apacket sent from the remote region will be sent as an encapsulatedpacket to the home region, to preserve its IP address, and the homeregion will de-encapsulate the received packet and forward it to thedesired service with the original IP header/address intact. Similarly,packets received at the home region from the service will beencapsulated and sent to the remote region where they will bede-encapsulated and transmitted to the user. This tunneling is performedtransparently to the user whenever a user connects to a remote regionand is presently believed to provide significant advantages for users ofnetworks employing IP address-based security models.

While only specific combinations of the various features and componentsof the present invention have been discussed herein, it will be apparentto those of skill in the art that desired sub-sets of the disclosedfeatures and components and/or alternative combinations of thesefeatures and components can be utilized, as desired.

The present invention provides a novel method of servicing data accessrequests from users accessing a network with multiple connection points,the services being provided independent of the actual connection pointand/or the communication client employed by the user to connect to thenetwork. This method is transparent to the user and to the provider ofthe accessed service and can be customized for each type of client,using parameters known for that client, and can be customized for eachuser's preferences for each client. For example, the user need take nospecial steps to access the user's Email from a remote region with a PCStelephone. These access requests are also serviced transparently to theservice provider, for example the author of the Email message does notneed to alter the message to allow the user to access it via a PCStelephone. Information relating to the user is transferred through thenetwork to the connection point at which the user has connected to thenetwork and is maintained at the connection point to reduce latency andbandwidth utilization for the connection. Further, new services can beadded to the network as desired and distributed storage of userinformation, user data, and other data is provided and access to suchinformation from any network connection point is provided.

We claim:
 1. A method of servicing data access requests for a useraccessing a network via a communications client connected to any one oftwo or more network regions,comprising the steps of: (i) determining ata network region a type of communications client and transferring aconnection for the communications client to a bridge at said networkregion which is appropriate for said determined type of client; (ii)verifying the identity of said user; (iii) determining any predefinedpreferences of said user and services which said identified user is ableto access by accessing a user profile stored for said user by saidnetwork: (iv) allowing said user to access any of said determinedservices, said network region converting data streams to and from saidclient between a format appropriate to said determined type of clientand a format employed by said determined service; and (v) monitoringsaid connection to determine changes to the type of communicationsclient and, upon detection of a change in the type of the communicationsclient, re-performing steps (iii) and (iv).
 2. A method according toclaim 1 wherein step (ii) further comprises the step of determining ifsaid network region is a home region defined for said user or a remoteregion.
 3. A method according to claim 2 wherein, when said networkregion is determined to be from said home remote region for said user,in step (iv) said access to said determined services is provided fromsaid home region, via a communication backbone linking said remoteregion and said home region, such that address and other identifyinginformation from said home region to said accessed service correspondsto the address and other identifying information of said home region. 4.A method according to claim 2 where in step (iii) at least a portion ofsaid user profile is replicated to said remote region when said user hasconnected to said network at a remote region.
 5. A method according toclaim 4 wherein said portion of said user profile in maintained in apersistent cache in said remote region.
 6. A method according to claim 5wherein said user profile further includes information providing accessto said services.
 7. A method according to claim 6 wherein said remoteregion communicates with said home region to update said user profile insaid home region with changes to said user profile resulting from useractivities at said remote region.
 8. A method according to claim 6wherein said remote region and said home regions maintain said portionof said user profile at said remote region and said user profile at saidhome region in correspondence by transmitting updates through saidnetwork reflecting changes in said information at either of said homeand said remote region to the other of said home and said remote region.9. A method according to claim 5 wherein, after said user disconnectsfrom said network, said portion of said user profile is maintained insaid persistent cache at said network region until the earlier of apredefined time period and the time at which the user reconnects to saidnetwork at a different network region.
 10. A method of processing dataaccess requests from users connected to a distributed service networkincluding multiple connections points, comprising the steps of: (i)establishing a connection to a user at a connection point to saidnetwork; (ii) locating information defined for said user and stored at adefined location within said network; (iii) transferring a copy of atleast a portion of said information from said defined location to saidconnection point through said network; (iv) processing data accessrequests from said user in accordance with said copy of at least aportion of said information and transferring a copy of additionalinformation required to fulfill said requests from said defined locationto said connection point; (v) transmitting, over said network betweensaid defined location and said connection point, updates representingchanges effected at each of said stored information defined for saiduser and said copy of said information to each of the other of saidstored information defined for said user and said copy of saidinformation to maintain correspondence therebetween.
 11. A methodaccording to claim 10 wherein said portion comprises identificationdefined for said user.
 12. A method according to claim 10 wherein saidinformation defined for said user further comprises a personal agentdefined for said user.
 13. A method according to claim 10 wherein saidcopied information is maintained at said connection point until saiduser connects to said network at another connection point.
 14. A methodof processing data access requests of users connected to a distributedservice network, said users employing at least one of a plurality oftypes of communications clients and said network connected to aplurality of services, comprising the steps of: (i) for a userconnecting to the network, determining a type of communications clientemployed by the user and retrieving parameters defining requiredcharacteristics of said communications client from a storage location insaid network; (ii) receiving a data access request from said user for aservice selected by said user from said plurality of services; (iii)determining the required characteristics of data to and from saidselected service; (iv) automatically converting data transferred betweensaid service and said communications client in accordance with saidrequired characteristics of said communications client and saiddetermined characteristics of said user-selected service; and (v)monitoring the type of communications client, to determine changes tosaid connected communications client and, upon detection of a change inthe type of said connected communication client, re-performing steps (i)through (iv).
 15. The method of claim 14 where in step (iv) said data isconverted also in accordance with user-defined preferences stored insaid network.